Woe unto Jerry Manuel, for having the short-sightedness not to see the future.
If we'd wanted a manager who wouldn't know in advance that his pen would cough up a three-run lead in the 9th to his team's chief rival, we would have kept Willie Randolph on. Willie looked like he could never predict the unpredictable.
Everyone knows that with your closer out, you let your top starter finish a game in which he's tossed a mere 105 pitches. Had Manuel simply followed that formula, everyone would have applauded him for it, regardless of the outcome. Had the starter imploded in the 9th, or tripped over his shoelace and torn his labrum, the wise masses would certainly have given the manager a pass.
It's not as if Manuel will be needing the rest of the relief corps once his closer returns, which will happen anytime between tomorrow and never. Which is none too soon, because the closer has been a paragon of untouchability, not withstanding those six blown saves and other assorted piles of poo.
It's not as if Manuel should be able to rely on his second- or third-best relief guy to retire three batters before relinquishing three runs. After all, those kinds of leads are precarious and disappear in the ninth inning in a full three percent of games.
It's not as if squeezing an extra frame out of his starters is going to affect the Mets' playoff chances. Five starters and a closer should be enough, particularly in the weak NL East where the Phils have three of the top four NL home run hitters and the Marlins lead the league in dingers.
So to all you Met fans and sportswriters carving Manuel up for asking his relievers to get three outs on Tuesday night, I say, you tell 'em! And hey, give me the score of tomorrow's games so I can drop a few drachma on the winners.
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